Major Central American Cultures Early Civilizations

1
Major Central American CulturesEarly
Civilizations

• OLMEC ca. 1200-300 BCE
• MAYAN
• Preclassical 2000 BCE-100 CE
• Classic 100 -900 CE
• Postclassical 900 CE-1500 CE
• TEOTIHUACAN flourished 100-650 CE

2
Olmecca. 1200-300 BCE
The Olmec heartland is characterized by swampy
lowlands punctuated by low hill ridges and
volcanoes. Tropical climatealong the Gulf of
Mexicoenough rain, dont need huge irrigation
but do need drainage systems Actually three major
centers, probably connected through marriage
alliances but not unified politically
3
Were still learning about the Olmecs . . .

• A carved monolith unearthed in Mexico may show
  that the Olmec civilization, one of the oldest in
  the Americas, was more widespread than thought or
  that another culture thrived alongside it 3,000
  years ago. (Reuters May 8th, 2006)

4
Olmecs

• Established the first major Mesoamerican
  civilization.
• Often regarded as the Mother Culture of
  Mesoamerica
• First to use stone architecturally and
  sculpturally
• Clever mathematicians and astronomers who made
  accurate calendars
• Agricultural economy
• Highly developed technical skills
• magnetic compass
• complex drainage system
• First writing in Americas
• No metal technology

5

• Regional trade in obsidian and jade

6
Olmec heads glorified the rulers or players when
they were alive and commemorated them as revered
ancestors after death
Made of basalt, they range from 5 to 11 feet
high. Quarried stone needed to be transported 65
miles from Tuxtla Mts. via log rollers, wooden
sleds and rafts.
7
Olmec Architecture
Monumental sculptures and ruins suggest a highly
stratified society with rulers, administrators,
engineers, foremen and a large peasantry slaves
most likely built pyramid at La Venta

• At La Venta (one of the ceremonial centers),
  after 900 BCE platform mounds were arranged
  around large plaza areas and include a new type
  of architecture, a tall pyramid mound.

8
Olmec Religion

• Olmecs recognized at least 10 gods including a
  jaguar god, a serpent god, a fire god, a rain
  god, a corn god, and the Feathered Serpent
• Prodigious offerings were given in the form of
  mosaic pavements of jaguar masks, jade
  sculptures, and possibly human sacrifices
• Four ceremonial sites uncovered
• San Lorenzo ca. 1200-900 bce
• Laguna de los Cerros ca. 1000-600 bce
• La Venta ca. 1000-600 bce
• Tres Zapotes ca. 300 bce

9
Shamanism

• The most well-known aspect of shamanism in
  Mesoamerican religion - and in the whole of
  Native American shamanism - is the ability to
  assume the powers of animals associated with the
  shaman.
• Such animals are called nahuales, and in Olmec
  art the most common of these is the jaguar.
• The spirituality and intellect of man and the
  ferocity and strength of the jaguar are all
  combined in the shaman and his jaguar nahuale.

The Jaguar Child may exemplify this combination.
This is a very common representation in Olmec
art, and it often includes .slitted eyes and a
curved mouth.
10
Olmec influence on Central-American Civilizations

• Art
• Religious symbolism
• Hieroglyphic writing
• Bar and dot numbering system
• Calendar
• Bloodletting ritual
• Ball game
• Maize!

Olmec Glyph shows the World Tree sprouting out of
Creation Mountain
Mother Culture
11
                     Detail of Long Count Date
"The Grandmother", Monument 5 at La Venta
The discovery of a fist-sized ceramic cylinder
and fragments of engraved plaques has pushed back
the earliest evidence of writing in the Americas
by at least 350 years to 650 BCE. Rolling the
cylinder printed symbols indicating allegiance to
a king - a striking difference from the Old
World, where the oldest known writing was used
for keeping records by the first accountants.
(New Scientist Dec 2003)
12
Ancient civilizations in Mexico developed a
writing system as early as 900 BCE, new evidence
suggests. The discovery in the state of
Veracruz of a block inscribed with symbolic
shapes has astounded anthropologists. Researchers
tell Science magazine that they consider it to be
the oldest example of writing in the New World.
The inscriptions are thought to have been made by
the Olmecs, an ancient pre-Colombian people known
for creating large statues of heads. (BBC Sept
14, 2006) . . . The Sumerians, who lived in
Mesopotamia, what is now southern Iraq, are
generally regarded to be the first people to
develop a form of writing around 5,000 years ago
although there have been even older claims made
for Chinese inscriptions.
13
The Mayans
14
MAYANS

• Although there was never such a thing as a Mayan
  Empire, the diverse peoples and
  politico-religious formations that in the past
  occupied Yucatán and modern day Belize, Chiapas,
  Guatemala and Honduras, all had common cultural
  characteristics
• a highly developed calendar
• a rich complex writing system, and sophisticated
  mathematics.
• Archeologists and historians recognize several
  periods in the history of these cultures
• Preclassical 2000 BCE-100 CE
• Classic 100 -900 CE
• Postclassical 900 CE-1500 CE

15
Mayan Political Organization

• CITY-STATES --- cities were politically
  independent/decentralized yet there was a
  cultural union between them (common language,
  trade cultural traits) (compare to Greece
  cities had wars, trade, roads connecting them)

16
Mayan Royal Audience
Mayan Ball Game
17
Mayan Economy

• Maize main agric product, but also squash,
  beans, cotton, cocoa domesticated the dog and
  the turkey, but no large animals.
• Big underground reservoirs for storing rainwater
  cleared routes through jungles and swamps to
  develop trade networks (like with Teotihuacan)
• NO major RIVERS so dependent upon rainwater
  collection techniques of spinning, dyeing and
  weaving cotton
• Cities important commercial centers, markets,
  trade
• Control of obsidian deposits was crucial as it
  pertains to politics and the power of elites
• Cacao was a precious commodity

18
Agricultural related godsLOTS of gods (patron
god for each city plus others worshiped) -- the
Mayan PantheonBloodletting and human sacrifice
to please gods who ensure agric cycle
continuedStepped templesPopul Vuh creation
storyThe Mayas believed in an elaborate
afterlife, but heaven was reserved for those who
had been hanged, sacrificed, or died in
childbirth
Religion
19
Mayan Social Structure

• Hierarchical feudal theocracy so kings and
  priests at top (these hereditary noble elites had
  control over all learning, incl. writing), then
  warriors, then merchants, then professionals
  artisans, then peasants slaves (war captives).
  Had skilled farmers who cleared sections of rain
  forest and skilled weavers and potters.
• Patriarchal duh!

20
Intellectual
calendar, glyph writing, astronomy math! Concept
of zero no machines with wheels.

• Mayan calendar

Mayan Numbers
21
Mayan Hieroglyphics

• The unit of the Maya writing system is the
  glyphic cartouche, which is equivalent to the
  words and sentences of a modern language.
• Maya cartouches included at least three or four
  glyphs and as many as fifty.
• There is no Maya alphabet.
• Writing considered to be a sacred gift from the
  gods.
• Knowledge of reading and writing was jealously
  guarded by a small elite class, who believed that
  they alone could interact directly with the gods

22
Codices

• Maya glyphs were also painted on codices made of
  either deer hide or bleached fig-tree paper that
  was then covered with a thin layer of plaster and
  folded accordion-style.
• Record rituals, chronologies and important
  events.
• Most were burned by the Spanish during the 16th
  c.

23
ART
temple pyramids, jade, jewelry, sculpture Copper
was not only used for exchange, but for
ornamentation as well. Other things, such as
gold, silver, jade, shell and colorful plumage
were also used as ornaments
Mayan Ball Court
Jade Pectoral
24
Teotihuacanflourished 100-650 CE

• Named by the Aztecs place of the gods
• Writing and language did not survive
• Primary manufacturing center of Central America
  obsidian

Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
25
CHAVIN
The earliest urban culture on the South American
continent was the Chavín culture, so-called
because its major site was found in the area of
Chavín de Huantar. The Chavín culture arose in
the highlands of northern Peru around 1000
BCabout the same time as the Olmecs in Central
America and thrived until 500 BCE. We know
almost nothing about the Chavín like the Olmecs,
they worshipped a jaguar-man god which suggests
there might have been some kind of cultural
contact between the two

• Unique geography lived on coast, in mountains,
  and in jungle

26
Chavin continued
Agricultural corn, squash, beans, potatoes plus
seafood domesticated llamas --as pack animals
(but mostly did not have large domesticated
animals)
Polytheism statues of jaguar men Square stone
architecture, no mortar Priests have highest
status
Probably politically unified public works
operated by reciprocal labor obligations had a
capital city